Wild Kingdom

On today's episode of Wild Kingdom.....

I am being amazed by the critters in my yard/garden this year. It's almost as if they are tame and have no problems associating with me a lowly human. While we have always have some sort of animals and insects, I am marveling at how the numbers have increased over the years. Perhaps, they have realized part of my garden is for them. I grow sunflowers, everbearing strawberries for the birds. Almost all of my flowers are perfect for hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. I have a cottage style garden not only for my pleasure but for the toads. And, I also grow certain veggies just for the rabbits.

Since it's Monday, I thought I would make this an easy blog post and acquaint you with the party that happens morning, noon, and night in my yard.

K got this shot of our "baby" rabbit. Don't know if she's actually a baby, but if you saw the size of the other one, you'd think so. Her favorite thing is to sit in my flower bed and wait to scare me by popping out when I go to plant something.



Ever wondered what toads do during the day? They dig holes. This surprise awaited me when I went to plant my new planters. Glad I put that dirt there for them. These are my attack frogs. They particularly like to attack the Mr. Man when he's walking through the yard at night.



Here's what happens the morning after a toad party. Yep. Tadpoles. In my new pond. These are the day old babies. I'm waiting for the older ones to get their legs so I can take pics of that. I'll keep you updated on my toad babies. (Btw, since this is Wild Kingdom, did you know one toad can eat approximately 3300 insects a month?)




Not the best pic of this big ol furry bee, but I like it anyway. Last year my yard was filled with bees. I could sit and weed and have bees buzzing all around not paying me any mind. Can't wait to see if they come back.



No butterflies yet, and those darn hummingbirds seem to know when I don't have my camera outside. I really want a pic of the beautiful ruby throat that visits daily.

Oh, and I'm going to start living in a cave so I can get back on schedule. I swear I'm going to have to start telling people I've moved just so I can get something done. Since the last time I blogged, the Mr. Man hit a deer with his company van(he's okay), K has been nonstop with things at school which she has so kindly volunteered me for, had to visit relatives at the bequest of the matriarch of the family-my grandmother, the riding lawnmower blew up so I'm now pushmowing all 2 acres of my yard, and the summer is only beginning. I'm not complaining but I would like 3 days back to back where something doesn't break, no one gets sick or hurt, and I'm not the only that answers the phone in my family.

I'm blogging tomorrow if it's the last, and only, thing I do. :)

In My Mind..

Today is the phabulous Phriday Photo Phiesta on Candid Carrie's blog. Since it is snowing (what the heck!), my favorite pics today are the ones I took last weekend when it was 80 out, and we visited the beach.

So, here you go, and in my mind, I'm taking a vacation here away from it all.






Hope you have a terrific weekend. Oh, and please help me with my makeover post.

Wish I could Fly

I do. Not like airplane flying. More like grow wings and soar like a bird flying. That's why these pics are my favorites for this week.

It's Friday and that means Phriday Photo Phiesta over at Candid Carrie's. I was looking through my pics and decided on these because of that whole wanting to fly feeling.

Sometimes you get lucky and get shots like this Harvest Moon or the sunset that looks like a Monet painting. It just makes me want to fly. I want to fly like a bird or Superman and just soar through the clouds.

I've always had this fascination. In the summer as a storm approaches, I like to stand out in the wind with my arms raised head towards the sky eyes closed and let the wind wrap around me. Birds always look so happy when they are just gliding along.

I imagine flying is a very freeing experience.

Watching The Boats Go By

Today is another edition of Carrie's Phabulous Phriday Photo Phiesta. I love doing this every week because not only do I get to enjoy everyone else's photos from the week but I get to share some of mine. I find myself searching out pics to take every week then trying to find just that one to share. One of my favorite things to do is photography.


This week my favorite pic has to be this one I took when we took a day trip to visit my great aunt in Virginia. If you've never been to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, it is full of terribly small towns and everyone pretty much knows everyone else(think Mayberry). In fact, my aunt pretty much knows everyone over the age of 50 and probably quite a few under, and if she doesn't know you, she probably knows someone you're related to.

I took this photo as we were leaving the restuarant we went to for lunch. It overlooks the Chesapeake Bay(I think). I thought these old men gossiping and watching the boats was just too cute to pass up. I didn't even know people still did this. They just exchanged the barber shop for a dock. They were tickled pink to have me take their pic. They're probably still talking about it, and I plan on sending a copy to my aunt to give the man who actually posed for the pic. He's the one in the center looking at the camera.

These men renewed my faith that maybe the world isn't going to Hell in a handbag so to speak, and maybe there will always be that place where you can just forget the world and sit and watch the boats go by.

Hope you have a great weekend, and if you get the chance to come back tomorrow, you should because tomorrow is Tongue Twister Day(and I'm not making this up).

Foto Fiesta

It's Friday! I'm doing a dance of joy around my computer. It kind of looks like a rain dance.

In case you missed last week, Friday means Friday Foto Fiesta on Candid Carrie's blog. My photo for this week you may have all ready seen as it was part of my Halloween Party post.

This is a favorite picture this week because just look at the eerie nature of it. I'm amazed at how well it turned out as I just used the light from the skull. No flash. No nothing. In the middle of the night.

I think this might have to become an addition to my Halloween decorating next year though I may have to find another way to light it. I created this glowing skull using a skull K had(don't ask and not real) and inserted a glow stick in the hole in the base then just placed it on the ground. Pretty easy peasy. If you only did it for Halloween, it wouldn't cost that much, but if you did it every night for a while, then you would probably need another method of lighting or a glow stick fairy to bring you boxes of glow sticks.

Now you've seen mine, head on over to Carrie's blog and see the others. I bet there's going to be some good ones this week.

A Photo Fiesta

Today is Photo Fiesta at Candid Carrie's. You are supposed to pick out your favorite photo and tell why. Here's mine.

It's my favorite because my daughter helped me take the picture. I positioned it and she took it. It was a spur of the moment pic on a day trip. Plus, there is just something about the abandoned tracks seemingly going on forever into the unknown.

Time to announce my new blog feature now. Well, it's at least time to discuss it.

I was thinking, and let me know what you think, I could do a blog feature once a week or every couple of weeks on my blog readers. An interview of sorts. A way for all of us to connect and learn about each other.

I could post a pic, if you let me, and several interview questions. If you have a blog or Flickr, I, of course, would link to you. There would be questions, but they wouldn't be hard.

Any suggestions for questions? Would you read the interview or be willing to participate? Let me know what you think. Also, don't forget about my giveaway and the Halloween party tomorrow!

Tranquility

The latest addition to my Etsy shop and ring collection is my Tranquility ring. It's a copper band ring that has been accented with copper tube set sapphires. 5 of them to be exact! I've had these little sapphires laying around for quite some time but never had anything to do with them. I think they look magnificent against the copper.

The ring itself has been formed from copper sheet. The copper sheet was rolled over a copper tube to create a one piece effect. Originally, I had only planned for there to be two smaller tube settings on the other side of this roll, but I changed my mind. I decided there wasn't enough depth. I'm glad I did. Looks better with the three, don't you think? I then set the sapphires in all the tubes including either end of the roll. The name tranquility came about from the blue of the sapphires.

In other news, it's a very dreary day here. So much so, I am missing summer even though it hasn't completely gone yet. I will mourn it until it returns next year which seems oh so far away from now. I do believe I would be quite happy to live somewhere where it's summer all year. So, for those of you who are mourning the loss of summer like me, I will leave you with an original photograph by me to remind you of the joys of summer.

Home Improvement Roundup

Today is another edition of home improvement roundup, but first it's day 8 of the photopalooza. I promised pictures taken during the day, but I cheated a little and also added some effects. It's just when I saw them that they looked a little old timey so I made them look really old timey. The first is of a house just across the field from mine. No one knows who owns that particular piece of land, and the second is of some houses and trees behind me past another field. We'll have to see what we come up with today.

Home Improvement Roundup. This week's edition will be followed by a tutorial next week. This week's edition is about taking down a wall between two rooms. Not just any wall. No, a load bearing wall. I want a more open floor plan in this ugly double wide of mine so I decided we needed to take down the wall between the kitchen and living room. When I'm done the living room will no longer be the living room but a library/dining room. But, that's in the future.

Creating a more open floor plan aids in heating the home. It will be a more efficient way for the heat to pass from room to room. Plus, an open floor plan gives the illusion that the rooms are bigger and the house is bigger than it actually is. There are a few problems with taking down a load bearing wall like how to support the weight of the roof. The good part is that a roof on a double wide does not weigh as much as a roof on a normal house so we created a few header beams(next week's tutorial) and attached them to either side of the existing wall.

Actually, we have only attached one beam. I can't seem to get someone(ahem, Steve) to do the other one. Maybe on his day off. Once that is done, we can then begin to tear the wood frame of the wall out. The wood we tear out will be saved and used in other projects in the house. Also, while doing a project like this, it's a good time to insulate any cold spots you may find in the walls. I suggest the blue hard foam that you can find in sheets at any home improvement store. We will also be rerouting electricity so that we can install a ceiling fan and some much needed lights in the ceiling as there never were any in this house.

Well, I'll be back tomorrow with more pics for the photopalooza and hopefully a new item for my shop. Home Improvement Roundup will be back next Thursday with a tutorial on header beams that are more common than you think. It'll save you money on your home improvement project if you know how to make one.

Featured

I have discovered a new show on Fit tv for my exercising journey. It's just perfect, too, since my ankle is still too sensitive to do the workouts I would normally do. It's called Shimmy, and it's about bellydancing. I discovered it quite accidentally, but I'm glad I did because it's fun. I think I'm going to start recording the episodes so I can do them at night after Steve has left. This way I will only get minimal smirks from K who no longer questions what I do. She just assumes her mother is weird all the time.

Today I have a couple features of Etsy artists. I haven't done one of these in a while. Most of the features I do are from people I have either traded with or bought from, just so you know. My first feature is of the shop, erinandjanet. They are an amazing shop filled with beautiful photography. I like to highlight photographers from Etsy because I don't think they get the accolades they should. I traded for the Dead Tree photograph and the Broken Railway one:

I noticed they have lots of new pieces in their shop like In the Pines. Love that one. You can get your photograph in most any size and with a white border if you choose to do so. Janet is just fabulous to work with. A very lovely person.

Another lovely person I have traded recently with is ezrascousin. Such a talent and just the nicest person! I love her shop and her capelets though I'm not quite small enough to wear one. If you are into a vintage look, hers is the shop. Her crochet work is just amazing! I love the two pieces I got. One is a cloche-style hat and the other is a scarflette. I really wanted a capelette, but as I said before, I'm a big German girl. Go check her out!

Off to work on more photos for the shop and actually make something new today. Until tomorrow, my lovelies!